Mexico govt denies claims of neglecting graft fight

Guardian News and Media/London

A senior Mexican minister has described the disappearance and possible murder of 43 student teachers as a “wake-up call” for the country, but has rejected accusations that the government has been too focused on its economic agenda to tackle violent crime and corruption.

The disappearance of the students 10 weeks ago in the southern city of Iguala - allegedly after corrupt municipal police handed them over to a local drug gang - has provoked protests across Mexico and led to a slump in the popularity of President Enrique Pena Nieto amid accusations that he has done little to address the country’s security crisis.

Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, undersecretary for multilateral affairs and human rights at Mexico’s foreign ministry, said the students’ disappearance had strengthened the government’s determination to root out corruption and fight drug gangs.

“(The disappearance) is a big challenge, but it does not mean we were not working on these issues before,” he said. “It sounds a warning and tells the people, the government and the private sector that economic reforms will never bear their fruit if rule of law does not prevail.”

Despite the discovery of at least 38 bodies in mass graves near Iguala - and the official report that dozens of young people were killed and burned in a rubbish tip outside a neighbouring town - Gomez Robledo said the government was still treating the students’ disappearance as a missing persons case.

“The search continues, and no evidence has been released so far by the University of Innsbruck where the remains were sent to be examined,” he said.

“As the director of that institute said, it will take some time before they release any of the results of their investigation. Until then, we have to consider them to be missing, and the search continues. We are treating this as a case of forced disappearance.”

Gomez Robledo denied that the authorities had been too slow to respond, saying 79 people had been arrested in connection with the disappearances, including local police officers and Jose Luis Abarca, the former mayor of Iguala, and his wife María de los Angeles Pineda . It has been alleged that the attack was ordered by Abarca, who thought the students were planning to interrupt a speech by Pineda, and was carried out by police working with the Guerreros Unidos cartel, for whom Pineda was an operative.

Gomez Robledo argued that security had been central to President Pena Nieto’s agenda since his election two years ago. He pointed to the recent creation of a 5,000-strong national gendarmerie, moves to limit the jurisdiction of military tribunals, and the introduction of a national code of criminal proceedings.

The minister said the president had acknowledged the growing problem of kidnappings a year ago during a meeting of the national security council.

“He recognised that we were not doing enough in terms of fighting kidnappings, because the more we are successful against the narco gangs, the more they go and specialise in other fields of criminal activity. In 2013, we saw a surge in kidnappings and extortions which are now peaking and declining. He said very clearly, ‘We are not doing enough on that.’”

At the end of November, Pena Nieto responded to growing public anger by unveiling a 10-point package to address the vulnerability of local governments to infiltration by drug gangs - an issue perhaps highlighted by events in Iguala - and to strengthen his government’s commitment to human rights.

However, the package was dismissed by many security experts and human rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) , as a simple rehash of previous plans and commitments.

Gomez Robledo brushed off the criticism, saying the measures would allow the government to put serious political weight behind plans that had been devised in consultation with the UN and various NGOs.